Alexander (Hastings' Dictionary)

The name occurs fi^•e times in NT, and apparently belongs to as m.any distinct persons. 1. Mk 15^. A son of SiMON of Cyrene, and brother of RUFUS (see these names). A. and Rufus are eWdently expected to be familiar names to the readers. Very possibly they were Christian Jews. 2. Ac 4". ' Annas the high priest teas there, and Caiaphas, and John, and Alexander, and as many as were of the kindred of the high priest' (RV). Of this A nothing further is known.

The sug- festion of Baronius, Pearson, and Lightfoot, that e was the well-linown Alal)arch (on lliis tiile see Schiirer, HJP II. ii. 2Su) of Alexandria and brother of Philo (Jos. Ant. xvill. viii. 1, cf. Xix. v. 1), * scarcely needs serious discussion ' (Edersheim). PhUo was of liigh and wealthy birth (Jos. XX. v. 2), but Jerome's statement (</« Viris Illustr. xi.) that he was ' de genere sacerdotiun ' ia unsupported by any evidence. 3. Ac 19^. 'And some of the multitude in- structed A.

, the Jews putting him forward. And A. beckoned with the band, and would have made a defence unto the people. But when they per- ceived that he was a Jew' . . etc. etc. (RVm). The Jews were a natural and usual object of the religious animosity (cf . Up6<rv\oi v.", and Ko 2, ), which on this occasion they had done nothing to provoke. A. is put forward by his co-religionists to clear them of complicity with St. Paul, but the en- raged mob will give no Jew a hearing.

The absence of any nj suggests (cf . v.') that A. was well known at Ephesus ; he may even have been one of the ipyarai or Trx,''tTat of v.^, and thus identifiable with No. 5 ; but this, although it is stated (by Ewald, apiid Nosgen, inloc.) that Jews were sometimes engaged in forbidden trades, lacks evidence. i. 1 Ti l»9-»>. Mentioned with Hymen AEUS (cf. 2 Ti 2") as one of tlie unconscientious teachers who had 'made shipwreck concerning the faith.' St. Paul ' delivered them unto Satan ' (cf.

1 Co 5', and see Satan). There is no strong reason to identify this A. with No. 3. 3. 2 Ti 4". Tliis A. (1) was a smith (xoX«i5s). The word originally meant a worker in copper ; but as other metals came to be more commonlj' worked, it became applicable (Lid. and S. s.v.) to workers in any metal, esp. iron (Gn 4^ LXX, see also Trades). This makes possible, but by no means proves, the identity of A. with No. 3, if the latter could be shown to be one of the craftsmen of Demet- rius. (2) A.

had 'done' (ivcSeliaro) St. Paul many evils ; in particular he had greatly witlistood (\la.v avTiarri, ci. Ac 13') his words. (3) Timothy is cautioned against a like experience. "This last point locates A. mth Timothy at Ephesus, and makes it probable that (2) also refers to something tliat had taken place when St. Paul was last there (1 Ti 1'). If (2) refers to heretical teaching, our present A. might be identified with No. i.

But (2) is equally compatible with Jewish hostility ; and if so, we might combine (1) and (2) with the object of identi- fying him with No. 3. In any case No. 3 is the only possible link between 3 and 1. For specimens of the many possible conjectures on the wtiole sub- ject, see the comm. in Ivc. and Holtzmann, Pastor- albriefe, p. 255 so.

If, with many critics, we regard the Epistles to Timothy as non-Pauline, we miglit follow the last-named writer in regarding Ac 19^ as the basis of the notice in 2 Ti ; but in reality the two passages have nothing in common except the name ; the malicious personal antagonisn which is so prominent here is unhinted at there. A. ROBEUTSON. ALEXANDER TIL ('AX^fai-Jpos, 'defender of men '), known as the Great, was the son of Philip n.

, king of Macedonia, and of Olympias, a Molossian princess, and was bom at Pella, B.C. 356. He succeeded his father in B.C. 336, and two years later set out on his eastern expedition. The battles of the Granicus (B.C. 334) and of Issus (B.C. 333) made him master of S.W. Asia. Egypt was next subtiued, and Alexandria founded in B.C. 331. The di.scon- tent of his army thwarted his designs upon India, and in B.C. 323 he died at Babylon.

For Alexander's connexion «-ith the Jews, the principal authority is Jo.s. Ant. IX. viii. 3-6. The story runs tliat, whilst he was besieging Tyro, A. sent orders to the Jews to transfer their allegiance ALEXANDKK ALEXANDRIA 61 to him, ami to su]iiily liiiu with provisions and auxiliaries. The hi'Mi priest refused on tlie trroiiml of Ilia oath of lidelity to Uarius. A. destroyeil Tyre, took Uaza (B.C. 332) after a two nimrlis' siej^e (I)iodor. xvii. 8; Arriau, ii.

'Jli, '27), and marched against tleru.s. The hii,'h priest Jaddua (Neh 12"), or Simon the Ju.st [Yorna 60), was tauj^ht in a dream what to do, and led out the priests and the people to meet him. At Sapha ("icy ' he watched ' ; known also as Scopus, Jos. Wars, V. ii. 3, an eminence near Jerus. whence city and temple were all visible) the priest and the king met. A.

bowed before the divine name on the priest's tiara, and to the protestations of Parmenio replied that in a dream at Diuui he had seen such a figure as Jaddua's, and had been promised success and guidance on the way. Escorted by the priests, he entered Jerus., sacri- ficed in the temide under the direction of the high priest, and, when shown the Book of Dan., inter- preted of himself such passages as 8-' and 11'.

Before leaving the city he guaranteed to the Jews in all his dominions protection in the usages of their fathers, and immunity from taxation in their sabbatical years. How much of this story is legend- ary, it is impossible to decide. It is found in the Talmud as well as in Josephus. The silence of the cla-ssiial historians (Arrian, Curtius, Plutarch, and the Epitomists) is inconclusive, as they are gener- ally silent concerning matters relating to the Jews.

The position and the suspected attitude of Jerus. make a visit on the part of A. probable in view of his conlemi>latcd expedition against Egypt. And though imagination has clearly been at work with the details of the narrative, the balance of proba- bility is in favour of its substantial historicity. By A. Palestine was included in the province of Coele • Syria, which extended from Lebanon to Egypt.

The governor was Androraachus, who chose as his residence the town of Samaria, because of its central position, and possiblj also of the amenities of the neighbourhood. A''ainst him the Samaritans rose in revolt, prompted uy jealou.sy of the privi- leged Jews, by resentment at the estnbjisliment amongst them of the seat of government, or l>y the opportunity afl'orded by the absence in Egj-pt of such of their compatriots as were most favourably dispo.sed towards A. (Jo.s. Ant. XI. viii. 6).

Setting fire to the bouse of Andromachus, they bunit him alive. The news reached A. just after he had received the submission of Egypt ; and, hastening back, ho put to death the leaders of the revolt (Curt. iv. 8. 10), and removed the rest of the people from their city, planting a colony of Macedonians in their stead. From that time Shechem, at the foot of Mt. fJerizim, became the religious centre of the Samaritans. Coins of A.

have been found coined at Ashkelon and Acco (Ptolemais), and also, if Miillcr's identifications are correct, at Cie.sarea, Scythdpolis, and I{al)bah (Miiller, Numismatii/ue d\Ali:j-'tni/re, .■i().'i-309) ; but it cannot be inferred with conlidence that these towns were made by him sub-capitals of districts, as such coins were issued by the Diadochoi long after the death of A. Not only were large numbers of the Samaritans settled by iiim in the Thebais {,Ios. Ant. XI. viii.

6), and of Jews in Alexandria {ih. XIX. v. 2; Apiun. ii. 4) and in the Egyj). villages (see the evidence of papyri in Mahalfy, J^tolemici, 86, n.), but many of the latter appear to have willingly i-unilled themselves in his army. When he was rebuibling the temple of Bel in liabyloM, his soliliers were ordered to assist in removing the rubbish. The .lews are said to have refu.

scd on the grounds that any dealing with idolatry was forbidden them, and tiiat their Scrip- tures predicted the permanency of the destruction of the temple of Bel. They were threatened and punished in vain. Apjwalmg to A., they were exempted from the task, in virtue of the original stipulation that they 'should continue under the laws of their fathers.' The incident again is of doubtful authenticity ; but it is in agreement with all the traditions of the kindly attitude of A. towards the Jews.

In the Biblical books A. is expressly mentioned only in 1 Mac 1'' 6'', though several passages in Dan. are frequently interpreted as alluding to him. LrrKRATURR. — The sourcea of A.*8 history are examined in Freeman, Hut. Eniiayg, 2nd ser. Ess. 5, to which add Pauly, HE. art. ' Alexander,' and Mahaffy, Ptolemies, wliere in § 5fl evidence is adduced in favour of the novel su^'gestion, that A.

*« friendship to the Jews was due to his desire to use them as a kind of intelligence department to his army. For the rabbinical traditions see Derenbourg, [list, de- la I'al. i. 41 fT.; Hamburger, JiE ii. 44-47. Droysen, Gfsch. Alfx. (U« Grosfim (Hamburg, 1837), and Ge«ch. des Hetlenumus (Ootha, 1877) are of special value. R. W. Moss. ALEXANDER BALAS was either a natural son of Antiochus Epiphanes (Jos. Ant. xill. ii. 1 ; Liv. Epit, 50 ; Strabo, xiii.

), or a lad of Smyrna who claimed such descent (Justin, xxxv. 1 ; Appian, i'yr. 67). In the latter (more likely) case, Balas was his proper name, and its etymology is unknown ; in the former case the name may be connected \vitn the Aram. kYj? 'lord.' He also assumed his reputed father's title of Epiphanes (1 Mac 10').

lie was set up as a pretender to the throne of Demetrius Soter, whose despotism had alienated liis sulijects and ofiended his neighbours, by the three allied kings, Ptolemy Philometor of Egypt, Attalus II. of Pergamum, and Ariarathes V. of Cappadocia. The Uomans also supported his claims (Polybius, xxxiii. 14. 16), in accordance with their policy of promoting civil strife within kingdoms that might become formidable. He secured the help of Jonathan (B.C.

153) by nomi- nating him high priest, and after some reverses defeated Demetrius, who fell in the battle. Balas thereupon married Cleopatra, dauj^hter of Ptolemy Philometor (for a fuller account of whose relations with Balas see Mahatly, Ei.ip. of Ptulcmie.i, §§ 208- 212), and appointed (li.c. 150) Jonathan with special honours (Jos. Ant. XIII. iv. 2) aTpaTrryds and fiepioipxri!

, military and civil governor of the pro- vince, although Syrian commandants were retained in several of the principal fortresses. His kingdom now established, Balas proved himself an incapable ruler, negligent of State affairs, and given up to self-indulgence (Miiller, Fragm. Hiit. Grcec. iL prajf. xvi, n. 19 ; Liv. Ejnt. 50 ; Justin, xxxv. 2). Demetrius Nicator, son of Dera. Soter, invaded the country in B.C. 147, and was supported by Apollonius, governor of Cojle-Syria.

But Jonathan defeated and slew Apollonius, and was rewarded on the part of Balas by the gift of Ekron. Balas, however, was deserted by his own soldiers and by the people of Antioch. Ptolemy, his father-in-law, entere<l Syria on the plea that Balas was plotting against him, and took up the cause of Demetrius, to whom he transferred iiis daughter Cbiopatra in marriage. Balas hastened from Cilicia, where he had been trying to quell a revolt, but was defeated by Ptolemy. He was either slain (B.C.

140) in the battle (Eu.seb. Chron. Arm. i. 340), or he lied to Abuj, in Arabia, where he wius as.sa.ssinated (Miiller, I.e. ; 1 Mac 11"). The relation of the Jews to Balas, and the consistency of their alliance, ai)i>ear in 1 Mac 10", UV 'They were well pleased with Alexander, because he was the first that spake words of peace unto them, and they were con- federate with him always.' His necessities and his unconcern made Judiea almost autonomous. Alexander Epiphanes, I Mac 10' = A. Bala-i. R.

W. MO.SS. ALEXANDRIA (4 'KMivipua.), the Hellenic capital of Egypt, was founded by Alexander the Creat, B.C. 33'2. Under the early Ptolemies it 62 ALEXANDRIA ALEXANDRIA rose to importance, and became the emporium of the commerce of the East and of the West. Oblong in shape and rounded at the extremities, — Strabo compared it to the chlamys or cloak of the Macedonian cavalry, — it occupied the narrow strip of land which lay between the sea and the Lake Mareotis.

An artificial mole connected it with the island of Pharos, and on either side of the mole were commodious harbours which received the ships of Europe and Asia. The Lake Mareotis, which was joined by a canal to the Canopic mouth of the Nile, brought to it the commerce of the East. The beauty of the city was proverbial. One-third of its e.xtent was occupied with royal palaces and open public grounds ; and it had a system of wide regular streets with noble colonnades.

Its popula- tion, which amounted to about 800,000 souls in its flourishing period, consisted chiefly of Egyptians, Greeks, and Jews, who occupied separate quarters. The Regio Judivorum, whichlay in the north-eastern portion of the city, was surrounded by walls. A special governor, called the Alabarch, presided over it, and the .Jews were permitted to live according to their own laws.

The Jews— the mercenary race as they were called— were not popular with their fellow-citizens, but they were protected by the rulers, Greek and Roman, who recognised the value of their services to the commercial prosperity of the city. When A. became part of the Roman Empire, B.C. 30, and a p'anary of Rome, the im- portant corn trade with Italy fell into the hands of Jewish merchants.

The Lagidie were munificent patrons of learning, and it was their ambition to make their capital a place of intellectual renown. They collected within its walls the largest library of antiquity, part of which was housed in the temple of Serapis in the Egyptian quarter, and another part in the museum which was situated in the Bruchium or Greek quarter. To the museum was attached a staff of professors, who were salaried by the State.

It had a banqueting-hall in which the professors dined, corridors for peripatetic lectures, and a theatre for public disputations. The chief subjects of study were grammar, rhetoric, mathematics, astronomy, medicine, and geogTaphy. The school of philosophical thought which ultimately arose was eclectic, a patchwork of earlier systems, and it closed its career by dethroning philosophy in favour of religious tradition. For the student of Christian theology, A.

occupies an important place in the history of religious development as the cradle of a school of thought in which the earliest attempt was made to brin^ the teaching of the OT into relation with Hellenic ideas. It was in A. that the Heb. Scriptures were first translated into Greek.

This translation, although it afterwards became ' the first apostle to the nations,' was not made with a missionary purpose, being intended to afl'ord a knowledge of the law to the numerous Jews who hatl grown up in ignorance of the Heb. language. But having opened up their treasures to the curious Greeks, it bec^ime necessary for the Jews to explain and to defend them.

It was the claim of the Jew thatthe Scriptures are the sole source of a tnie knowledge of God and of human duty ; but when he became familiar with Greek literature, it was imi>ossible to deny that there also were found noble doctrines and excellent counsels. The Alex- andrian Jew offered an Apologia for his exclusive claim, whieh was repeated iw the Christian Fathers, lived through the entire Middle Ages, and almost to our own time.

I'lato and Pythagoras, he said, and even Homer, borrowed all their wisdom from the OT Scriptures. Aristobulus, a Jewish courtier, who lived about the middle of the second century B.C., writes: 'Plato took our legislation as his model, and it is certain that he knew ih<t whole of it ; the same is true of Pythagoni.-. In order to gain venerated authoritv foi tlii- assertion, the Jews composed verses in tlienameol the mystic poets of antiquity, in praise of Moses and of Judaism.

In his commentary on the Pentateuch, Aristobulus introduces Orpheus, and makes him say that he cannot reveal tht God whom clouds coaceal ; that the water-born Moses alone of mortals received knowledge from on high on two tables. Another writer of Egypt who was a contemporary of Aristobulus, the autlioi of the third of the Sibylline Books, introduces tin Sibyl of Cunia?

, who speaks of the Jews as a nation api)ointed by God to be the guide of all mortals : and she offers the coming Alessianic salvation tc all nations if they will turn from their idols to serve the living God. Having thus established to their own satisfaction that Gentile wisdom comes from the Scriptures, the Jews next proceeded to place it there by the help oi the magic wand of allegorical interpretation.

Tliu> interpreted, the narratives of Scripture easily yielded up Platonic and Stoic dogmas. The Jewish Alexandrian philosophy, which began with Aristobulus and cuJmrnated in Philo, was an elaborate attempt to clothe Greek philosophical ideas in Scripture language, and thus to confer upon them the authority of divine revelation.

It was to Platonism and Stoicism that the Jewish scholars most naturally turned ; for in the lofty monotheism of the former, and in the moral earnestness of the latter, they seemed to hear echoes of Isaiah and Solomon. It was through the influence of Platonic and Stoic conceptions that the Sophia and the Lo";os assumed such importance in the Jewish Alexandrian philosophy. In the Heb.

Scriptures they had been personified, but they were now hypostatized, and became intermediaries be tween the creature and the Most High God. The Jewish philosophy of A., which was not confined to A., but spread through the whole ot the Greek-speaking Diaspora, exercised a certain influence upon the Greeks, who were drawn towards Judaism by its accent of certainty abont God, which was always wanting even in the loftic-l theology of their own philosophers.

Its main influence, however, lay in its Hellenizin" of tln' Jews, who were enabled to appropriate Hellenu views of life without conscious apostasy from Judaism. The extent of the influence of Jewish Alexandrian philosophy on the writers of the NT has been variously estimated. There are strikini; similarities between the terminology and some- times between the thoughts of St. Paul and of the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews and those of Philo.

But the similarities are probably due to their common knowledge of the current teachin- of the Greek-speaking synagogue. On the otlur hand, the direct practical spirit of the NT writer> offers a strong contrast to the dreamy Intel lectualism of Philo's allegories. The name of the city of Alexandria does not occur in the NT. Mention is made of a synagogue of the Alexandrians in Jerusalem (Ac 6"). Apollo^ is described as an 'Alexandrian by race' (Ac 18^). St.

Paul sailed on two occasions in Alexandrian ships, which probably belonged to the com trade (Ac 27» 28"). It is remarkable that neither St. Paul nor his companions visited A., in some respects the most promising missionary field in the world. As regards St. Paul, to hazard a conjecture, he may liave been deterred by what occurred in Corinth (1 Co 1"), where Apollos followed him, and by his preach- ing produced an unhappy division without intend- ing it. St.

Paul may have felt that his simple pre- sentation of Christ crucified would be unwelcomi' ALGUM TREES ALL u3 among hearers accustomed to the word of wisdom in trope and allc^'ory. If we were to accept the yiew of those critics who hold that ApoUos wrote the Epistle to the Hebrews to the Jewish Chris- tians of A., it would be easy to explain St. Paul's conduct, as it would have been contrary to his custom to visit a Church which a fellow-labourer had already made his own (2 Co 10'').

According to Eusebius (II. E. ii. 16), St. Mark was the first who was sent to E^-pt, where he preached the gospel which he had written, and established churches in A. 'The multitude of believers,' he adds, 'both men and women, lived lives of the most extreme and philosophical asceticism.' The statement of Eusebius about St. Mark, which he introduces with the formula 'they say,' and con- nects with fanciful legends, has clearly no authority.

His description, however, of the char- acter of the early Alexandrian Church is probably correct. During the second and third centuries of our era Alexandria was the intellectual capital of Christendom. In the Alexandrian heretics Hasi- lides and Valentinus, and in the Church Fathers Clement and Origen, we observe how the spirit of Jewish Alexandrian i)hilosophy passed into Chris- tianity. See I'liii.nsopiiv, Rklicion'. LiTKRATURB. — Stnibo, Geof). xvii. : Bu8emu§, Prcepar, Evang. 13 ; l*atr.

Gr. xxi. ; Or. Sj/O. Hi. ; Dahnt*. Ge^. DarsUU. d. Jud.- AUx. Rei.-I'hittm. \ Pauly-Wissuwa, liJi ; DTXimniond^ Philo- Judceru ; Uauarath, litms of Apostles. J. GiBB. ALGDM TREES, ALMUQ TREES (dij'j^n -alfjum- mim, 2 Ch 2» 9'"- "; D-3-''x almiif/r/im, 1 K 111"- ", LXX. {I'Aa TTfi/KiKa ; Vulg. liffnn thr/ina, lignn pinen). — Celsius (Hierobnt. i. l1'.^) states that some doubted the identity of the alguni and the aliuug.

This doubt, however, is not ju»tilie<l by the trans- position of the letters in the two names. Such transposition is extremely common in Heb. proper names (e.g. lichvm, ciri, Neh 12^ is called m v.'" of the same chapter Ilarim, cin). We are told that algum trees were brought from Opiiir (2 Ch 9'"). Almug trees were also brought from Oi)hir (I K 10"). These passages are perfectly parallel, and plainly refer to the same tree.

But, in 2 Ch 2', Solomon instniets Hiram to send ' cedar trees, fir trees, and algum trees (AVm almvrjrjim) out of Lebanon.' IMii the term algum in Lebanon signify one tree and in Ufjhir another? This is po.ssible. Cedar, in Eng., is ajiplied to various species of Cujiressu-t, A/jie.i, Juni/ierus, and Larix, a,s well as to Cediii.i Libnni. Vn, in Eng., is applied to several species of Abies, and the Scotch fir is I'inu.i xylvcstrUi, L. Spruce is used in Europe for Abies excelsa, L.

, and in the United States for three species of Abies: A. Cnna- detuns, Mich., A. atba, Mich., and A. niijrn, Poir. Instances of this might easily he multiiilied. If we accept this sui>[iosition, the pa.ssage is amply explained. Hut it all'ords no clue to the name of the tree growing in Lebanon. H, on the other hand, the tree which Solomon reciucsted Hiram to send was tlie same as that brought from Ophir, was Lebanon a station for it ? This is also possible.

We do not know where Ophir was, nor what the tree was. It would he quite ra-sh to say that it could not grow in both localities. The ccd/ir, mentioned in the same clause, grows in Lebanon, Amanus, Taurus, the Ilimnlayas, and the Atlas. It is al.so uncertain what Jir is allmied to in the pa.ssage. There are tirs in Lebanon, and also in some, at least, of the localities proposed for Ophir. It is possible that the unknown tree had a range which included Lebanon and Ophir.

The conditions for any canclidate for the algum or almu" tree, imported fioiii Ophir, are — (1) that it should be a wood of sullicieiit value to make its importation from so distant a country a.s Oiv>iir, be it Arabia, India, or the East Coa.st of .Afnea, pro- fitable ; (2) that it should be suitulile lor r^>af terraces (m. highways or stair.i, mure properly a staircase, 2 Ch 9"), and lyji /<i//a;'.v (ni. a prop or rails, more properly balustrade, 1 K Ui'*), and for futrps and psalteries.

Fifteen dilferent candidates have been proposed, among them thyine woml, deodar, fir, bitkm (CiKsal pinn Sajip<in). The majority of scholars, following the opinion of certain Kabbia, incline to the red sandal wood (I'terocarjnis Santnlina, L. ), a native of Coroman- del and Ceylon. There is not, however, a particle of direct evidence in its favour. Against it is the f.

act that it occurs now in commerce only in small billets, unsuitable for staircases, balustrades, or even the construction of harps and iisalteries. It is, however, possible that larger sticks might have been cut in ancient times.

In the uncertainty which must ever remain as to the identity of the tree intended, and with the probability that a consideralile number of trees which grew in Lebanon are now extinct there owing to denudation of forests, and the possibility that the Lebanon algum may have been a dili'erent tree with the same name, it is needless to suggest an interpolation of the passage ' out of Lebanon " (2 Ch 2»). G. E. Post.